Dressed in baseball cap and T-shirt, Lawrence Dermer is huddled over a
mixing board at Jerusalem's
Avi Yaffa studios along with veteran Israeli singer Shlomo Gronich.
It's a familiar position for the 46-year-old, Florida-based Dermer, one
of America's
most successful songwriters and producers. But instead of working on one of
his Latin-pop mélanges for Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez or Madonna that
have won him Grammy nominations and Gold records, Dermer is arranging the
verses for a song that's part of his new CD, Israel@60 - We Are Strong.
Due to be released in time for the state's 60th birthday celebrations
next month, Israel@60 consists of songs Dermer co-wrote with his BMI
award-winning songwriter wife, Robin, and features a collaboration with
Gronich, as well as the voices of various groups of Israeli youth whom the
Dermers recorded at sites throughout the country on a recent 10-day visit.
The finished CD, supported by the Jewish Agency, Israir Airlines and the Daniel Hotels, will be available on iTunes
and Amazon, with proceeds earmarked for several Israeli charities.
Today, Dermer and Gronich are working out the vocal arrangements for
"See Our Voice," a song they composed together, while Robin is
ensconced in a side room on her laptop, trying to write last-minute lyrics
for another verse for the song.
Dermer moves into the soundproof recording booth and lays down a
"scratch vocal," meant to be a guide for harmonies and counter
vocals, but he gives such a powerful performance on the bubbly, uplifting
tune that he threatens to blow the windows out of the room.
Gronich barely controls himself by the mixing board, dancing in his seat
and adding improvised harmonies to the vocal melody coming through the
speakers.
"That was great, Lawrence...
Do you think I should come in here, and do this line in Hebrew?" asks
Gronich when Dermer steps out of the booth, and the two go back to scan the
lyric sheet. All the while, every move is being documented by a
videographer and still-photographer brought over by the Dermers from Florida for a DVD
that will be released on an enhanced CD.
"The whole project began when I woke up one morning in December and
had this sudden inspiration," explained Robin, as the Dermers took a
half-hour break from the recording process.
"I felt I wanted to write something to enable children of all
backgrounds, regardless of where they're from, to celebrate Israel. Lawrence said, 'What a great idea - Israel is
going to be 60, let's write something.' He sat at the piano for an hour,
and out came 'We Are Strong,' and I wrote the lyrics just as quickly."
The Dermers had the song, and knew they wanted to record it with Israeli
children, but they didn't know how to go about it. They turned to a friend,
who contacted a Jewish Agency official, who fell in love with the project
and pledged his cooperation.
"It snowballed from there - it went from one song to now a whole
commemorative CD," Robin said, adding that the goal of the record was
to raise awareness of and create a positive opinion of Israel.
With their pop sensibilities, dancing beats and studio sheen, the songs
possess a radio friendliness that Lawrence
also sees as meant for another natural goal - airplay. "The songs
aren't esoteric, they're accessible to all ages and walks of life," he
said.
And he should know. For the last three decades, Dermer has written and
produced records for a who's who of pop royalty, including Estefan, Lopez,
Madonna, Lenny Kravitz and Barry Manilow, as well as producing two
"pre-wardrobe malfunction" Super Bowl halftime shows.
"I began playing piano at six and joined my first garage band at
11," he recalled. "For me, there was no distinction between a
hobby and a career. It was always so much part of me. It was never a
designation between a hobby and career - I did it for love. Then when I
found out you could make money from it, it just made life so much
easier."
Dermer's big break was meeting Estefan and her husband, Emilio, when
they were still struggling musicians, performing at weddings and bar
mitzvas in the early 1980s. Dermer, who was working as a session musician
in Miami,
played them some of his compositions, and had an integral role on the Miami
Sound Machine CDs that launched Estefan's success.
"That marriage of the roots of Cuban music and my American pop
sensibilities was very successful. Those hits by Gloria opened a lot of
doors for me, and I was able to approach other artists," he said.
Dermer's been in demand ever since, with Robin easing in over the years
to take over writing the lyrics to his infectious melodies.
"Music flows out of me naturally, while lyrics are very labor
intensive for me, but Robin's words always echo my sentiment. So I can come
up with some abstract music, and she'll come up with beautiful lyrics -
exactly what I wanted to say, except I can't say it as well," he said.
While Dermer's Orthodox father was involved with smuggling weapons from New York to the
Irgun during the British Mandate and Robin spent a high school semester in
Hod Hasharon, the Jewish/Israeli content of their songs had remained
dormant throughout their songwriting career. It was awakened by the rabbi
of their congregation in Ft.
Meyers, Florida.
"We had just returned from our first trip together as a family to Israel in 2006, and our rabbi who knew we
were a musical family asked Lawrence
to perform at a fund-raiser café night," said Robin. "But we
realized we didn't have any Jewish-themed songs."
They ended up writing and performing a batch of songs with names like
"Neshama," "Souls Live On" and "The Maker"
along with their musically inclined teenage sons, Jaxson, 18, and Harrison,
16 - a project that was so well received that the family decided to develop
it into Dermer's first solo album, Third House Rising, which was
released last year.
"We went home and looked at each other and said, we have the talent
and the capability and the home recording studio. Let's take this to the
next level and let's make a project that's all of our musical styles -
Hispanic, American, with Jewish values and roots," said Lawrence, adding with
a laugh, "We're the new Partridge Family."
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